May 30, 2006

A neighborhood welcome

NY Daily News
By Errol Louis

Introducing Errol Louis's Advisory Board on Atlantic Yards?

No. 1 on the list is Constantin (Gus) Vlahavas, the proprietor of Tom's, a diner that opened in 1936 and was once named by the Daily News as the best restaurant in New York City. " This will be a shot in the arm for us," Gus says of Atlantic Yards.

Roy Hastick, the founder and president of the Caribbean-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is another local leader who supports the project. He has been plugging away at building opportunities for small businesses for over 20 years.

Freddie Hamilton, a community leader from Clinton Hill, wants to see the project succeed. Hamilton, who tragically lost her son to gun violence, successfully sued the gun maker in federal court.

Eve Porter, also a supporter, has spent a couple of decades running the Crow Hill Community Association, which recently launched a beautification drive that has transformed a formerly drug-plagued strip of Franklin Ave.

Delia Hunley-Adossa, president of the 88th Precinct Community Council, is a city worker and activist who voluntarily shoulders the potentially hazardous job of talking openly with the cops about how and where to stop dope dealers and other crooks in Fort Greene.

Freddie Hamilton and Delia Hunley-Adossa are signatories of Forest City Ratner's Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) for the Atlantic Yards proposal. Other signatories to the CBA are contractually obliged to support the plan publicly, and some are receiving financial support from Ratner.

Atlantic Yards Report concludes:

We've yet to learn what support, if any, the groups Hamilton and Hunley-Adossa represent have received. But they're not simply neutral neighborhood activists.